SP1 drops, iPlayer falls over and Phorm is less than legal

And bees as far as the eye can see

Cheerful hackers found a way to snag high-quality, DRM-free files from the BBC's iPhone streaming service for their computers, but Auntie has already shut it down. Party's over, fellas.

They put all the episodes up on day one, and they could be downloaded simply by making your own page of links and incrementing one number per link.

Ah yes, great security.

For me this removed the worry of missing an episode, since I was due to be away for one week of the show. Didn't stop me buying the CD version the day it came out though.

carey pridgeon

"The BBC played the beta card yesterday, telling it was aware of the hack, that it was "nothing unusual", and it was already working to block it. The contracts with third party production companies that allow the national broadcaster to offer downloads insist that DRM that locks the files down after 30 days is part of the package."

Doesn't the H264 stream service already break these contracts in any case - how do they expect to control what happens? A stream is just a download which isn't stored. Let alone a stream in a standard format which only needs to be saved and can then be easily played back without needing to re-encode or modify the container format.

People are only interested in hacking around because this is the kind of service they want, not that horrible kontiki rubbish. The flash streams look terrible plus adobe has awful support for anything other than macOS or windows.

If they need to have DRM (I'm a realist - these things may be necessary temporarily) then they should be helping to define an open system which would allow desktop and mobile (and set-top) clients to be written.

This proprietary crap is never going to support everything - people only work on it if they get paid, they only get paid if there's a demand, there's only enough demand to justify development if the device is vastly popular. Unfortunately, lots of software seems to cost more to develop than it's notionally worth by orders of magnitude. See how much freeware/open source there is around which could never generate enough income for the primary developers to support themselves doing only that. Even open source has to fall back on support contracts and integration work to make the ends meet.

If the BBC want to see their content available to the public (as they are supposed to) then they should be working on an open spec for 3rd party apps to interface with - Google understands this, hence the recent release of the YouTube APIs.

Anonymous Coward

Why fix what wasn't broken? They had DRM, it was restricted to UK only IP addresses, that was the only DRM needed and it worked fine. It's the *extra* *crappy* *Microsoft* DRM that causes all the problems. It has never worked anyway, and just makes it difficult to play on all sorts of non Microsoft devices. Largely because Microsoft refuses to disclose how it works doing it's usual attempt at platform lockin.

Sure UK Linux users could play the files, but then UK Linux users also pay the TV license. So what's the problem with that?

Look at it this way, they delivered it in a standard format, Linux users put together a player within a few days. So set top boxes, and UK Tivos and games consoles and networked video players would all be able to play that content, and just like the Linux guys could add support very very quickly.

This is exactly what the BBC wants!

The IP address restriction is all the DRM they need. It restricts the digital rights to the UK IP addresses without restricting it to Microsoft computers only, which is exactly what is required.

Ditch the *Microsoft* DRM, keep the IP address verification DRM.

Anonymous Coward

Meanwhile the buzz in California is that a bumbling truck driver has stung locals by spilling 440 colonies' worth of bees across Highway 99. The bee-zarre incident saw apiarists and Romanians sorting through the mega-swarm before the colonies could be once more on their way. The Reg hive mind sprang into action, creating a honeypot of puns:

not buzz-iness as usual then...

mines the yellow and black one :D

Anonymous Coward

Well done on that headline, it'll create quite a buzz I'm sure. The Reg editorial office is clearly a hive of activity today.

IGM heavy canvas & mesh coat, hat, veil, gloves and smoke machine.

Tim

Sorry, too late in the day to come up with a real stinging comment.

Mine's the one with the gauze helmet..

Peter

I am reminded of returning home late one night to find that a truck loaded with sheep had overturned on the M61/A580 junction in Manchester. While feeling very sorry for the poor sheep, the sight of some 30 + policemen - some wearing wellies - chasing terrified sheep all over the motorway and surrounding fields was priceless.

Where is the videocam when you need it.

John

reminds me of when a sales girl phoned saying she'll be late because she was stuck behind a lorry load of blood which had popped on the m6

when she did arrive everybody popped down to take a look at the car, it looked like an extra from death race, theres only so much squirty wipers can manage